Amity's Plight
by Kiran-sama
Summary: ((Sequel to A Bone to Pick)) Ever since his best friend vanished after the traumatizing events that had taken place during their freshman year, Karkat has had a hard time coping with his absence. But when rumors of the lurking mafia start to circulate once more, by some miracle he finds himself once again face-to-face with Gamzee- but not at all how he imagined.


_Author's Note:_

_My Lovelies! I had been thinking about doing a sequel to A Bone to Pick for quite a bit of time now, and I finally got around to it! :D So, here it is. I hope you guys like it as much as its predecessor, and, as always, leave your feedback for me. Authors love the feedback. Kthxbai. _

_I present unto ye, O Lovelies: Amity's Plight!_

**xxx**

**CHAPTER ONE:**

**Aftershock**

Karkat Vantas didn't hate people nearly as much as he said he did. And, by this point in his life, that was common knowledge. Everyone, especially his closest of companions, knew that he wasn't as averse to people as he proclaimed. Even _he_ knew that. It was all just for show. But everyone was okay with that. That was the norm. Several things had become normal since the Ordeal. For example, it was normal to see Karkat and Nepeta near each other in public places, something that hadn't used to happen before. Karkat claimed that he was just resigning himself to the fact that this girl was his step-sister. But in reality, the two had become closer since the Ordeal, as brother and sister. _Everyone _knew that, even if he refused to say.

But that wasn't the only thing that had changed since that day. It wasn't long after the whole thing was over that Karkat and his friends had been reminded of not only the price that they had had to pay, but of the one that some of their classmates had had to as well. After Ms. Serket and Mr. Ampora had been tried and jailed, Vriska, Aranea, Eridan, and Cronus had faced a predicament similar to that of the Zahhak boys. While the Serket gals were able to remain together due to copious amounts of hard work on the elder's part, the Ampora boys had not been so lucky. Eridan had been moved into foster care, and had been placed out of the school district because of it. Luckily for them, though, Cronus stepped up to the plate (much to everyone's surprise), and as soon as he graduated, had busted his ass finding and keeping a job, and setting up a place for them to stay. After a number of months, Eridan was finally permitted to live with his brother again, and he came back to his old school in time to finish off his sophomore year with the people he'd grown up with.

Feferi and Meenah had been a completely different story altogether, though. Their mother had not been arrested. She would have been tried along with her underlings. After the police had taken over things, she'd just... disappeared. And yet, the two sisters remained together. Around that time, rumor had it that their mother still had ties with her daughters, and that they were sworn to secrecy about the whole thing. The rumors weren't in the least bit quiet, and Meenah had gotten into many a violent altercation with an unfortunate gossip monger over that. Feferi had grown sullen since the Ordeal, much to everyone's puzzlement, and, unlike her sister, took the rumors in her gloomy stride, rather than act out. No one was sure which they would have prefered more.

Alas, that wasn't as far as the effects of the Ordeal extended. While the Serket gals and Ampora boys were forced to work their buts off to keep their families together, and the Peixes girls were dealing with cutting hearsay, the Makara brothers were apparently affected much differently by these events. It hadn't taken anyone long to notice, Karkat especially.

They'd simply vanished.

Karkat and his fellow ex-captives had taken temporary refuge at their home, and that was the last time he'd seen his best friend. They hadn't been seen anywhere ever since, at school or otherwise. Now, naturally, there were plenty of rumors about this development as well, but they were of such numbers and variety that Karkat stopped trying to keep track of them all and hunt down those that started them. Hell, once, he'd heard one that claimed that the two had run off to join the circus, where they belonged. He'd lost it then. The gossiper had gotten a hell of a shiner, and Karkat had gotten detention.

To the more observant of Karkat's friends, it was around that time that their companion... changed. He wasn't smiling as much anymore, he always seemed to be frustrated or on edge, more prone to snapping, and more withdrawn than he'd used to be. He wasn't the Karkat they'd known. Or, he _was_, technically, but he was... hidden. Hidden under the layers of stress and (what he wouldn't admit was) depression that had started piling up.

Of course, he wouldn't have expected them to understand. His best friend had gone missing, without leaving any goddam hint as to where he'd left to. He could have been just about anywhere. Another city, another region, another _country,_ or hell, he could have been right under their goddam noses, for all he knew, or for all anyone knew for that matter. No one, not even Sollux and Terezi, two of those among Karkat's inner circle, could ever have fully realized how emotionally dependent he was on the whimsical Gamzee. Even _he_ didn't fully realize it. Not until the juggalo teen had gone AWOL. After the events of the Ordeal, Karkat had assumed that Gamzee would be there for him, as a shoulder to lean on, so to speak. He always had been before. But now? Gone. All that was left was the gaping absence he left behind.

He'd had a hard time dealing with his best friend having vanished off the face of the earth, obviously. His brother, Kankri, had been there to help when he could, but both of them soon realized that the elder obviously wasn't the right person to be counselling him. But his friends and step-sister had tried, too, and they were much more successful. Nepeta and her adorable optimism had been agitating at first, but it'd slowly become endearing after a while. Sollux was more humorous in his approach, and often attempted to cheer up Karkat when he was in one of his bluer moods with good-natured sarcasm and just all-around masculine companionship. And Terezi? Well, it was obvious that she was trying to fill the gap that Gamzee left (a rather large one; imagine her surprise that one such as he could have been of such a large influence), but, try as she might, it was to no avail. The task was impossible.

However, she was helpful in her own right. She was more of a therapist for a while, and it really did help, although she wasn't telling Karkat to get over the fact that his father was going to get remarried anymore, and was instead "helping him cope with" the fact that his friend was missing and that it was highly unlikely that he would ever see him again. Oh, how that part had stung. But, according to her, he was likely to be better for it. And, much like always... she was right. He'd eventually come to accept that, chances were, he would never see Gamzee for the rest of his life. At first, he'd been a real baby about it, but after a while, well... he was _less _of a baby about it.

After about a year or so, he became more resigned to the idea of never seeing his best friend again. Which begged the question: _were_ they still best friends? Gamzee had just up and left without saying a word to him about it. Did best friends _do_ that to one another? Sometimes, when he'd accidentally allow his mind to meander down such a dark trail of thoughts, he would find himself angered by that question. The obvious answer was "no".

Then _why?_

_Why _had he left?

Had Gamzee cared about their friendship at all?

To an outside observer, the obvious answer would have been...

..."no".

By the time he was a senior in high school, despite his best efforts, Karkat found himself borderline irked by the memory of the clownish teenager, his once-best friend who'd abandoned him in the wake of such a trauma. But despite all the hostility he thought about Gamzee with at times, Karkat couldn't deny that he wanted to see him again, if only to ask why he'd left in the first place. Sometimes, he would think about what he would do if he ever saw Gamzee again. His thoughts were various, depending on his mood, and ranged from kicking the fucker in the balls to hugging him so tightly he'd forget what it felt like to breathe. But one thing was for sure: however he would react upon seeing Gamzee again, he would be surprised as hell to know that the day had come.

But, heck, a guy could dream, right?

**xxx**

"Karkat! Make sure you're all packed up and ready to go, alright? You too, Nepeta. I don't want to miss the plane tomorrow, so have everything prepared tonight," called a woman's voice, a voice not so hated anymore by our protagonist.

"'Kay Ma," came the simultaneous response of the woman's two teenage progenies. Said "progenies" were currently occupied by something of far greater importance, however, than the words of their mother: video games, of course.

"Karkitty what button do I press?"

"The square! Press the square to attack!"

Nepeta squealed with frustrated indignation as her character was promptly mobbed by zombies due to her lack of acclimation to the controls. "Karkitty it's not working! What do I doooooo?!"

Karkat sat up in his beanbag chair, getting caught up in the heat of the moment. "Sprint! Get the fuck out of there, dammit!"

"AAAAGH I can't! It won't go!"

"Give me the controller!"

"What?! No! It's my turn!"

"You're gonna die if I don't-"

The siblings fell silent, and the dying screams of the character on the screen were the only sound in the room for the next few moments. Nepeta broke the silence by growling at the screen, and her grip on the controller visibly tensed. "Karkitty! This game is dumb!"

He couldn't help but snicker at her. Admittedly, it was fun to watch his sister get worked up... when it wasn't directed towards him, exactly. "It's not dumb, you're just bad at it."

She huffed. "No! This game is unfur..." After a few moments of pursing her lips, she continued with, "...I'm trying again."

She started playing the game again, and Karkat humored her attempts at victory as she was swiftly cornered once more by the throngs of zombies. Her "infurriation" at the game never seemed to cease being entertaining. The only thing that dragged him from the fun he was having by watching her fail was his phone, ringing loud and proud from his nightstand.

Karkat was up and off of the beanbag chair in a flash, leaving Nepeta to her own devices for the moment. He picked up his phone and glanced at the caller I.D. It was Terezi. He couldn't help but smile a bit.

He answered the call and answered it, grinning madly all of a sudden, standing up as straight as he could. However, his greeting wasn't anywhere near as suave as he'd wanted it to be. "Hey, Terezi!" he said, a bit too eagerly for his liking. To keep from kicking himself too hard, he motioned to Nepeta, who'd "pawsed" the game after dying once more to look at him, waving his hand towards the door of his room. His sister wiggled her eyebrows at him before rising from her beanbag chair, setting the controller on the floor by the TV, and exiting his attic-room, closing the door behind her.

Karkat childishly stuck his tongue out at her as she left before being jerked back to his phone conversation, hearing Terezi respond as the door was shut. "Karkat!" she greeted him back, sounding just as enthused, which made him feel a bit less self-conscious. "Hey, so you're coming to my party, right?"

Well fuck. He'd forgotten all about her spring break party. She'd actually told him about it before his mother had informed them that they would be taking a vacation, but he'd forgotten to mention it to her since. _Shit. _"Uh, actually, T, I... uh... I don't think I'll-"

"Aw, you can't come?" The disappointment was prominent in her usually confident voice, and Karkat immediately kicked himself some more for not nipping this issue at the bud when he had the chance.

He sighed. "No, I can't. Sorry. Fucking family vacations, you know?" Karkat laughed a little in an attempt to lighten the mood. "We're going down to the coast for the week. Gonna visit Kankri and Meulin while we're down there. They've got break right now, too." Kankri and Meulin had graduated a few years prior, and had since gone to college. Kankri got a full ride, and, once Meulin had pulled herself together after her boyfriend's disappearance, had decided that she wanted to go to the same school as her adoptive brother. At first, her mother wasn't sure she'd have been able to handle going to a normal university what with her disability and all, but it turned out that she did fine, just like in high school. In all honesty, Karkat wasn't as averse to this vacation as he might have made himself out to be; he was actually looking forward to seeing his brother again. It had taken some time getting used to not having to constantly dodge lectures on privilege and ethics.

To Karkat's relief, she didn't sound at all upset anymore, back to her normal self. "Kick ass. Tell them I said 'hi', would ya?" She didn't really wait for a response, snickering a bit before going on. "You're lucky, though. I almost never get to go on vacations! Mom's always got precinct business to deal with." Another snicker. "Not that I'd wanna go anywhere, anyways. I've got no reason to. Except for, say, the opportunity to watch you prance around on the beach in some tight shorts in _the_ most masculine way possible."

That had him laughing on the inside despite himself. Terezi could always just word things in a way that didn't piss him off... usually. He passed on the chance to make a "you can't even see" joke, instead clearing his throat gruffly to make it seem as though her jest had gone unappreciated.

"Ah, go fuck yourself. I hope your party punch gets spiked with THC. Have fun explaining _that_ to Mama Pyrope." He smirked to himself, having convinced himself that his comeback was suitable. He wasn't adequately prepared for her rebuttal.

"Hah! Joke's on you, Karkles! Gamzee's not invited!"

There was an audible grimace from the other end, as though Terezi was severely regretting having said that. Despite that, Karkat still wasn't sure how to take the joke, so he remained silent. Part of him was offended that she'd said that, and wanted to lash out at her, but that was mainly instinctual. Another part of him wanted to laugh, though, because the joke itself was actually rather humorous. He was... conflicted, to say the least. As such, he said nothing while he tried to sort himself out. Terezi must have taken this as a sign of negativity, so she quickly broke the silence.

"Um, sorry, Kar... I didn't mean it like... you know..."

He cleared his throat and replied in an even tone, still not entirely sure how to feel. "It's fine..." His voice trailed off, and he shifted from foot to foot, awkwardness of the conversation palpable even over the telephone.

Karkat heard his friend sigh deeply. "So, um... I guess I'll see you when you get back, then. You'll still be able to message over vacation, right?"

"Yeah... Yeah I will."

"Okay then. Talk to you some other time, then. Bye, Karkles. Love you."

"Love you too, Rez. Bye."

With that, Karkat hung up, feeling rather disheartened after the conversation, despite the fact that they were apparently "on" at the moment on their on-again-off-again rollercoaster of a relationship. Usually, that comforted him, but it wasn't doing much good at the present moment.

Karkat slipped his phone into his pocket, sitting down on his bed and massaging his forehead with his hand, suddenly feeling rather fatigued. He sighed deeply. He tried to think about Gamzee as little as possible nowadays, and little slip-ups like the one Terezi had made didn't help his cause any. If he didn't know any better, he'd have thought the universe was mocking him, forcing him to remember what he was trying to forget. The universe was a cruel son of a bitch sometimes. But that didn't change the fact that he certainly did want to see Gamzee again, whether out of anger or the fact that he missed the clown.

He was ripped from his thoughts by a loud knock on his door. "Karkitty!" Nepeta called. "Are you done yet? I wanna play some more!"

The teen sighed as he rose from his bed and made his way over to the bedroom door. He could think about Gamzee some other time, however much it hurt. There was no way in hell he'd end up seeing the guy again, and there was nothing he could do to change that. Sure, that was a tough idea to wrap his mind around, and even after three years of Gamzee's absence, Karkat was still having trouble doing just that. But at the moment, he had more important things to do. There were games to play.

**xxx**

_That took a lot longer than it should have. Heheh. Sorry, guys. It took me forever to get and stay motivated long enough to finish the chapter. But hey, we all have our off days, right? ^^_

_Anyways, I hope y'all enjoyed that first chapter. It was more of a setup than anything for events to come. I have a feeling this fic is going to be somewhat shorter than its predecessor, mainly because I only have one big idea for the plot and not a whole lot of twists and other events like I did with A Bone to Pick. I have a general idea of where I want this to go, but I'm always open to plot suggestions, so shoot me a PM if you get any. _

_...And for those of you who don't know, THC is the active chemical in marijuana. Just wanted to get my joke across XD_

_Oh yeah, one more thing: I'm currently focusing on three different stories at the moment, so for the sake of organization, I'll be cycling through them rather than posting chapters for whichever story I feel like. That way, if I want to post a chapter for a story, I have to get through the stories before it to get to it XD gets me motivated. Or, at least, that's what it's supposed to do. So, I just got this chapter out of the way, so I'll be posting for two other stories after this one before I come back to it. Next, I'm doing one for Of Blood and Glory, my Homestuck-Hunger Games crossover (I have lols I want to throw in there before everyone starts to die), and after that I'll do one for my Black Butler story c: I apologize in advance if this baby doesn't get an update for a bit, but thanks for reading anyways, Lovelies. Reviews are always appreciated. Unless they're flames. If you flame, I'll be forced to pull out my hose and douse that motherfucker out. Okies. Bye now~_


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